A Chinese Cure for Small Pox
May 10, 1888Small-Pox is due to causes partly internal and partly external to the suffering victim. The present season, being the driest of the whole year, is peculiarly trying to health. Some of the conditions attendant on a dry atmosphere have an all-powerful effect in bringing on mankind diseases, especially small pox. As already stated in these columns it has been raging at Kongmao, in the district of San Ui. At the present time it is prevalent in Canton and Fatshan. Sad to relate children in great numbers are seized with malady and deaths are frequent. The last circumstance has induced certain benevolent and philanthropic gentleman to write to us information on the following remedy:
“In a case of small-pox do not call in a doctor or resort to drugs, for the incompetent among doctors are more in number than the competent, and there is danger, that the treatment administered will rather kill than cure. Refrain, therefore from sacrificing life to the ignorance of quacks. The true remedy is to beat a drum in the presence of the patient. No matter what kind of drum. Several varieties have been tried, and always with the best results.
No sooner did this prescription reach us than we determined to rest its efficiency One of our friends had a child afflicted with small-pox. The child had been under the influence of the disease for several days. It could not take food worth speaking of, and moreover, the makeson the skin, instead of coming out, as they should do when disease takes a favorable turn, were beginning to disappear. A fatal sign.
We acted on the advice sent to us,a nd proceeded to beat a drum at the child’s bedside. The results were marvelous. The pock marks forthwith began to show, the child’s appetite returned, and as the drum beating was repeated from day to day, recovery was rapid, and finally became complete.
The advice contained in the letter above quoted is not all given. There is one important addition to be made. If the patient himself beats the drum “so much the better.”- Canton Kwong- Po
source: The Cambridge City Tribune
